jabber server

January 27, 2006 8:37 PM

Jabber server
Matt - long term plans? Big promotion on the blue? Something in the sidebar? I'd assume only the geekiest are actually using it (while it's fairly simple to use, it's not common knowledge.)
posted by filmgeek to MetaFilter-Related at 8:37 PM (26 comments total)

Yeah, I'm not sure how prominent to make it -- it's only been up for 6 days and I'm not sure it's stable long-term (but it is looking that way). It's linked on everyone's user page so I figured word would get out that way, but I can't really figure out where to publicize it aside from a link in the footer or something.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:45 PM on January 27, 2006

Ok. Just checking (in public) - vs. a direct IM (which I feel often is intrusive.)
posted by filmgeek at 8:48 PM on January 27, 2006

If I may ask a question about it here, I keep getting booted then automatically reconnected to the server using Gaim (which is very annoying, as it basically restarts Gaim). Is this normal? Is there a setting I'm missing? Is it instability?

I do like having a mefi-only account to chat with people, though as others have said, I'm not too sure what to do with it beyond that. More rooms? Topic-specific rooms?
posted by loquax at 8:51 PM on January 27, 2006

I guess I'm just not that interested in it. I like interacting with people on the main pages, taking it to e-mail if there's more to say.
posted by Miko at 8:55 PM on January 27, 2006

loquax, I never get booted when logged in using iChat.

I don't think more chatrooms are a good idea, the main one is barely used now. I like more for one-on-one feedback. I got to actually talk to someone about a deleted comment yesterday over IM, which was handy.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:07 PM on January 27, 2006

Can you imagine a chatroom with 50 of us going after each other? It would be like metafilter in fast forward.
posted by puke & cry at 9:22 PM on January 27, 2006

You use what?

(Just kidding, though I did have to look it up to see that iChat was Mac only)

I like it for one-on-one contact too, and have used it with a few people already, but I wouldn't really go into the chat room too often because, well, it's just chit chat. At least whenever I've popped in. On the other hand, if there was a "politics" room, or a "quick and dirty askmefi" room, I would probably drop in more often. Maybe those kinds of things are best kept on the site, or maybe that's what IRC is for, but I could see some good posts on various subjects coming out chat room discussions. I don't know much about how these kinds of things work though, maybe the admin and moderation is too much to bother with in the first place.
posted by loquax at 9:50 PM on January 27, 2006

I am old and feeble, with little energy left to discern nuances in teh technology. What is jabber and how does it differ from IM and/or chat, please? Thanks (I hope) in advance.
posted by trip and a half at 9:53 PM on January 27, 2006

Jabber is an IM protocol, like MSN or Yahoo or AOL (correct me if I'm wrong anyone). You need to use a program that can use the jabber protocol to connect to the mefi server - think of the mefi server as an independent chat network. The link at the top has details on how to connect and what programs to use. I don't know about this stuff either, but it's easy once you get the right app. For instance, I use Gaim, which lets me connect to all the major chat networks, plus any jabber server.
posted by loquax at 9:57 PM on January 27, 2006

I'm already beginning to like this.

(00:58:44) gooseontheloose: holy shit
(00:58:49) gooseontheloose: i have no genetalia
(00:58:58) saucy|intruder: argh, i need a ruler
posted by Firas at 10:01 PM on January 27, 2006

loquax, how does the room differ from IRC? It's whatever topic you make it. If you ask an ask-mefi-ish question someone is bound to answer as long as there are enough people...
posted by Firas at 10:10 PM on January 27, 2006

Thanks, loquax!
posted by trip and a half at 10:21 PM on January 27, 2006

I'm sure you're right, but if there were specific rooms with specific topics, maybe more people would come by? Assuming that's a desirable thing in any case.

For example, I wouldn't walk into the room now and start talking about the new cd I was listening to, but if there was a mefi music chat I would pop in and mention it. Ditto books, news, art, history. I don't know, I fully admit that I'm not too familiar with the IRC thing, maybe these kinds of chat rooms exist elsewhere, I'm just tossing out ideas. I'd like to chat occasionally in real time with mefites (say, for example, about the Palestinian elections, and especially on days like this, when I'm sick and bored on a Friday night), but a general room about nothing in particular isn't very conducive to that speaking personally.

(and for anyone who might know anything about my Gaim issue, it seems to keep "reinitializing the stream")
posted by loquax at 10:23 PM on January 27, 2006

For example, I wouldn't walk into the room now and start talking about the new cd I was listening to

um, why not?

a general room about nothing in particular

...is a room about generally anything in particular.
posted by quonsar at 10:45 PM on January 27, 2006

Well, we talked about weird askme quetions, then gender quizzes, then soup, then vacation spots, then littering in Canada, then about whether something would make a good fpp (conclusion: it was already posted), then videogames. So I'd say you're safe attempting to talk about your CD. Hope your thing ends up connecting successfully.
posted by Firas at 10:59 PM on January 27, 2006

loquax- there's no reason you shouldn't come in and just start talking about the CD you've been listening to. I'm in there a lot in the evenings (too much, probably), and we've talked about what music we've been listening to on at least a couple occasions. In the past hour we've talked about soup, taken a gender test (the internet thinks I'm male), FTP, video games, and where people are from. It's not like the blue in real-time, where everything stays on-topic. And there's also no reason you shouldn't come in and start up a conversation about Hamas, either. It's basically just like a bunch of people sitting around in your living room talking. And it's cool, I like it.

Also, gaim wouldn't work for me until I forced my firewall to let it connect, so you may want to play around with yours.
posted by Meredith at 11:00 PM on January 27, 2006

um, why not?
...is a room about generally anything in particular.

You're right. I don't know. Just seems odd to me. What if everyone's talking about videogames and hamburgers and I want to chat about egyptian mummies? Isn't that the idea behind the IRC servers, a different chat room for every bizarre thing under the sun, and you can be in as many as you want at the same time?

I'm not saying that a general room as it is is bad, it's not. Just that I'd likely not go there too often, unless there were other rooms dedicated to topics too. If the idea is to get more people active on the server, maybe there are others like me who need at least a little structure and guidance to play?

I may well be alone in this. It's also not a big deal or anything, I like the server as it's set up now too.
posted by loquax at 11:01 PM on January 27, 2006

There really aren't enough people in the rooms. Adding rooms would only thin the average amount of attention paid in each room. Don't be the kid that doesn't want to play unless the teacher picked a game you like. Just come play already.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 11:31 PM on January 27, 2006

I was just there! And once I figure out my gaim issues, I'll be back.
posted by loquax at 11:35 PM on January 27, 2006

It doesn't seem that Jabber is available for the free version of Trillian, could anyone recommend a (free, of course) alternative?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:39 PM on January 27, 2006

Alvy, Gaim runs on Windows, too.
posted by ori at 1:54 AM on January 28, 2006

loquax, GAIM does the same to me as well.
posted by rhapsodie at 2:30 AM on January 28, 2006

Adium, which uses the libgaim library, does the same for me. Which versions of Gaim are you two using?
posted by bitpart at 2:58 AM on January 28, 2006

If you two are using 1.5, try the 2.0 beta and see if that helps.
posted by bitpart at 3:03 AM on January 28, 2006

fyi, gaim constantly crashed for me when i used jabber. or it would lock up tight when i tried to log out. i still use giam for my icq and aim contacts, but i switched to a jabber-specific client called gajim for my jabber contacts. it is available for windows, though it requires a lot of python stuff to be installed beforehand.
posted by quonsar at 8:22 AM on January 28, 2006

I've been using Miranda with no problems - free, and multi-protocol.
posted by youarenothere at 10:12 AM on January 28, 2006